Today
by CatsBalletHarveySpecter
Summary: Harvey has a ring and a very important question. Post 909.


I couldn't help myself...

and so the one-shot in one sitting post episode strikes again.

This is my take on a proposal, and though I don't think it would happen this way, it was also a fun way to tie the Lily story in.

Happy Reading (Harvey has a ring can you believe we finally made it!?) - xxS

* * *

"No" she breathes, her hands nervously folded across her waist as her concerned eyes meet his hopeful ones.

"What?" he manages to spit out, a concerned look washing over his face as he tries to read her, to understand why she could possibly be saying no to him.

"I… Harvey I want to marry you… just not like this" she stutters, pupils dilated as she stammers back a few steps and he looks up from where he's kneeling in the kitchen, bewildered.

.

.

_"Harvey, you don't ever have to tell me what's in that envelope. I understand if you want to keep it for yourself." _

_"I'll tell you Donna, but not today." _

_He meant it when he told her he would tell her, and all week, despite the madness with Faye and his attempt to deal with the grief that still lingered, he wondered why he'd never done it sooner. Despite everything that was happening with Mike or Katrina or Samantha, when the walls of the firm were crumbling down and the structure was ready to cave in, she was always there, she'd always been there. She was there when he lost his father. She was there for every milestone of his career, and she was here now, helping him through the pain of a loss he never thought would hurt him so badly and picking up the pieces of his semi-shattered second family that lay in Faye's wake. _

_He and his mother had talked about his future with Donna on the phone a few weeks back, on a night he decided to put in a few extra hours at the office before meeting her at home. Home, a strange word for him, and yet he found himself referring to his apartment as home more often lately, and he knew it was less to do with the apartment itself, and everything to do with the women who had practically moved into it. _

_The term home was the exact thing that led to his sudden epiphany while on the phone with his mother that night. She'd called to discuss some potential dates to come into the city when he mentioned he was headed home for the night when it hit him. She was his home, his sense of comfort, support and familiarity; his everything. _

_._

_._

_"I'll let you go then, wouldn't want you to keep Donna waiting" his mom says into the receiver as he tucked his laptop into his bag in preparing to leave. _

_"How do you know she's waiting?"_

_"Because it's 6 o-clock on a Tuesday and you're leaving the office. And I've never heard you sound so happy. Have you told her yet?"_

_"Told her what?" he asks, draping his jacket over his arm while taking a seat on the window ledge. _

_"That she's the one" his mother replies and he can practically hear her grinning through the phone. _

_"Not yet…" _

_"What are you waiting for?"_

_"Honestly mom, I'm not sure. I guess I'm just waiting for the right moment. It's Donna after all, I don't want to mess this up" he admits, leaning back against the window as he waits for Lily to offer him the piece of advice he knows is coming. _

_"Harvey, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that fear of losing is never a strong enough reason not to do something. I mean, you practically asked her to marry you already, what's holding you back?"_

_"Nothing" he answers, realizing that his mom had a point, there was absolutely nothing standing in his way anymore. No fear of losing her or unreciprocated feelings, because she loved him, and he loved her. And that was as good a reason as any not to waste any more time. _

_"A small piece of advice son, there is never a wrong time to tell the women you love that she's the one." _

_"Thanks mom" he smiles before hanging up and dropping the phone into his jacket pocket._

_._

_._

_He grabs his briefcase and heads towards the elevator with a jaunt in step, a smile plastered across his face. He's been mulling over the way he wanted to do this all week, and in the wake of Faye's departure and Samantha's reinstatement at the firm, there's nothing left to distract him from the only thing he has left to do, the thing he'd been dying to do for months; only now, he had the perfect ring. _

_He'd gone ring shopping after that call with his mother a few weeks prior, deciding he should have a ring ready in case the opportunity ever presented itself, but the ring he ordered for Donna was immediately disregarded when his grandmother's ring fell out of that note and into his palm. _

_Admittedly, the timing wasn't perfect. The firm had just been put through the ringer and he was still dealing with the loss of his mother, but if he kept looking for excuses, he would always find one and he decided there was no excuse worthy enough of putting this off another day. _

.

.

He finds her in the living room, legs tucked beneath a fuzzy comforter as she flipped through a novel, so wrapped up in the story she hardly hears him come in. He tosses his keys onto the counter, the noise catching her attention, so she flips her book shut and smiles up at him.

"How did everything go?" she asks, tossing the blanket aside and moving to stand next to where he was leaning against the kitchen counter.

"It's all taken care of, everything will be back to normal on Monday" he answers, tugging his tie loss and discarding it on the counter before rolling up his sleeves.

"Normal" she repeats, fiddling with a stray curl that had fallen over her shoulder, "I don't even know what that means anymore."

"It means you and me and talking about anything besides work related things all weekend" he beams, leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek before striding past her in the direction of the bedroom, his discarded jacket and tie in hand.

"That sounds nice" she purrs, "Everything okay Harvey? You look, lost" she adds when she notices he his steps halt.

"Everything's fine I just… Donna," he begins, rooting around in the jacket pocket before his fingers find the small round object their looking for and he pulls the ring out of the coat in his sealed palm. He places the jacket down on the arm of the sofa before taking a few steps back in her direction, trying to remember the words he rehearsed several times on the way home.

"Look Donna, there's something I've been wanting to ask you… for a while now… and I was waiting for the perfect moment but then I realized that any moment I ask will be perfect, because I'm asking you."

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" she whispers, her hands flying to her mouth in shock.

"Donna Roberta Paulsen," he says, dropping down on his right knee as he takes her left hand in his, "I've known you were something special since the day I met you, will you marry me?" he finishes, holding a stunning blue and gold engagement ring up as she struggles to find the right words to answer him.

"No" she breathes, her hands nervously folded across her waist as her concerned eyes meet his hopeful ones.

"What?" he manages to spit out, a concerned look washing over his face as he tries to read her, to understand why she could possibly be saying no to him.

"I… Harvey I want to marry you… just not like this" she stutters, pupils dilated as she stammers back a few steps and he looks up from where he's kneeling in the kitchen, bewildered.

"What do you mean, _'not like this'_?" he asks, the hurt evident in his tone as he folds his arms across his chest.

"You're hurting Harvey. We've been through a lot this past week, but what you've been through is almost unimaginable. Losing your mother, having to go up against Mike and Samantha, almost losing the firm. You're just feeling vulnerable and I don't think that should be the reason we get married" she explains, reaching out to touch his arm with a soft knowing expression painted across her face.

"Donna I-"

"I'm not going anywhere Harvey, I'm not going to leave you," she reassures him, gently stroking his forearm with her outstretched palm.

"Donna" he interrupts again, only this time he steps towards his jacket and fishes out a crumbled envelope that she immediately recognizes; the envelope from his mother.

"Me asking you to marry me, has nothing to do with my mother, or the firm. Like I said, I've been waiting for the right time to ask you for a while now, long before shit hit the fan at the firm and before I lost my mother. She even knew, that I was going to ask you eventually. We actually talked about it a few weeks ago and she asked me what the heck I was waiting for. You see, I know that before I needed some help when it came to making hard decisions and taking leaps of faith, but now, I'm not afraid anymore. I don't need my world to fall apart to see that you are my world Donna."

"If anything, everything that's been happening has only been serving as a distraction. I don't want to marry you because I'm afraid of losing you Donna, I want to marry you because I want everything with you."

"Everything?" she whispers, her hazel eyes meeting his love-filled ones for a brief moment before flitting back down to the ground.

"I actually had a ring made up weeks ago, but I thought this one had more meaning. I want you to see this" he says, handing her the envelope containing the note from Lily and watching as the tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes as she begins reading the handwritten note.

.

_Dear Harvey, _

_I know we've been talking about a visit soon and I was going to bring this with me as a surprise. But I don't want to miss my chance. So, I wanted to make sure you have this, just in case. I know your grandmother would have loved Donna. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally meet her. _

_Love Mom._

_._

She looks up from the crinkled letter in her shaking hands, her tear stained cheeks flushed with a pale pink, her eyes glossy as the tears continue to fall. Using the back of her palm to wipe away some of the excess tears, she takes a small step towards him and finds his timid smile beneath tear-filled eyes. Losing Lily had been harder on her than she expected, and reading that she was looking forward to meeting her, something she would now never get to do, made her heart ache.

A part of her also can't believe he'd talked about asking her to marry him with his mother, but lately she found his actions surprised her fairly often, and she was proud to see how open he was to sharing his emotions with Lily.

"I was hoping that maybe with this ring we could vow to start a family of our own."

"Harvey I… why now? Why-"

"Because it's always been you. You are the only person I feel like I can be myself around, the only person who understands me, who knows me, maybe even better than I know myself. Donna, I'm not asking you to marry me because I'm worried that I'm going to lose you. I'm asking you to marry me because I love you whole heartedly and want the world to know what I've known in my heart for a long time."

"Ask me again" she instructs, peering up at him through her damp eyelashes. The sincerity in his voice giving her the crushing realization that she shouldn't have said no, because he wasn't asking out of impulse or fear. He was asking because he wanted to start a life with her, and she was over the moon.

"Donna… Roberta… Paulsen," he says slowly, pausing to take another step towards her with each word until he's directly before her with her hands in his.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes" she sighs while he slips the ring on her finger before launching her arms around his neck and drawing him in for a kiss.

Pulling back and breaking the kiss she stays encompassed by his arms as she examines her ring finger.

"Harvey, it's beautiful" she muses, turning her hand so the stone catches the light and it sparkles.

"So are you" he whispers, leaning down to kiss her once again, only this time it's much slower and he takes his time ravishing every possible inch of her lips until a breathy _Harvey_ leaves her lips as both a warning and a plea to take her to bed.

"Why today?" she mumbles between kisses as he begins to walk her back towards his bed.

"With all the commotion, I could never forget what day it is today" he whispers, fumbling with the zipper on the back of her dress.

"And here I thought you forgot" she teased, nipping at his lower lip.

"How could I ever forget…you changed my life that day you came to work for me."

"How fitting that you just changed mine" she smirks, holding up her left hand and flashing her ring at him.

"Today always has been a good day for us" he sighs before scooping her up and carrying her towards the bed.


End file.
